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Thursday, March 28, 2019

Sales Training Through Win Loss Research

Maybe you are a new salesperson looking to learn the ropes. Or perhaps you are a seasoned salesperson committed to continuous self-improvement and growth. In either case, learning is in your path.

Sales training aims to set salespeople up for success. It provides an individual sales representative a strong sales foundation and proven, time-tested sales tactics and strategies. In fact, U.S. organizations invest $70 billion annually on training, which comes out to an average of $1,459 per salesperson (Harvard Business Review, June 2017).

There are clearly a lot of resources devoted to helping salespeople improve, but how do you know if it is working or not?

In order to see if what you are learning (and hopefully applying) is working or not, you need to know more than what your win rate is. You need to find out why you are winning and losing.

Win / loss research provides you exactly that information, and what needs to be done to improve your own performance as well as your company’s overall presentation of its products and services. The customized, post-decision interview used in win / loss gives you the candid feedback you need to make competitive adjustments to your sales approach and strategy. Is what you learned in your sales training working?

A win / loss program can help you:

• Improve your own sales effectiveness and presentation skills by gathering insights that help you better position, package, differentiate, and deliver your message

• Increase your understanding of how your competitors are coming to market and succeeding in new business situations

• Identify the key drivers for closing new business

• Uncover unmet client needs and new product development opportunities

• Track your company’s progress against internal standards

• Identify areas for your own personal improvement within the four key phases of the sales process:
  1. Building rapport
  2. Identifying needs
  3. Presenting solutions
  4. Closing the sale

The bottom line is this: Learning is never really done as long as products, services, sales teams, and competitors are always changing. Making win / loss part of your personal sales process is the ongoing sales training that makes a difference.